1. It’s taken 23 years for acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s novel “Norwegian Wood” to move from the black and white page to the silver screen. And it hadn’t been for award-winning movie director Tran Anh Hung, there’s every chance it wouldn’t have happened at all, the author having steadfastly spurned approaches over the years. Five years on from the first contact between the two artists, the seminal story of love, death and the loss of innocence got the full red carpet premiere treatment, screening in competition at the Venice Film festival.

2. In the starkest piece of arithmetic of this and many other weeks, Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research calculated that Japan’s staggeringly high suicide rate not only takes a huge psychological toll, it also cost the country’s economy $32 billion last year. Perhaps the shock of the number’s scale may prompt more serious reflection in the country on addressing the problem at large: certainly, leading lights of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan have at least been talking about it. Read More »

Lower House lawmaker Muneo Suzuki, with trademark green tie, speaks before press in Tokyo on September 8 after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal against a conviction.

The country’s Supreme Court said Wednesday it has rejected an appeal from Muneo Suzuki, a Lower House lawmaker from Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, over the two-year prison sentence and 11 million yen (around $130,000) fine handed to him in 2004 by the Tokyo District Court. The Supreme Court upheld Mr. Suzuki’s conviction for receiving bribes from two construction companies that were bidding for public works contracts in Hokkaido.

Mr. Suzuki says he will file a complaint against the ruling, but if, as is likely, that fails, he will be stripped of his seat in the House of Representatives and will spend some time in jail. He will also be banned from running for public office for five years after his release.

About Japan Real Time

Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com